BC premier's office announces more staffing changes

There has been another round of changes in British Columbia Premier Christy Clark's office.

Clark's Chief of Staff Dan Doyle announced this morning that Ben Chin will join the office as the director of communications. He is a former television journalist and was a senior media advisor to Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty who resigned in October.

Chin is also reportedly a core member of the team working on Justin Trudeau's bid to lead the federal Liberal Party.

Ken Dawson moves from being a ministerial assistant in the education ministry to be the director of policy in the premier's office. Jennifer Chalmers gets a promotion to manager of operations from having been communications co-ordinator and executive assistant to the chief of staff.

And Maclean Kay moves into the communications co-ordinator position from being a communications officer for the government caucus.

Doyle's announcement does not mention any departures, but spokesperson Shane Mills said in an email that there had been three vacancies in the premier's office and today's changes do not affect the total staff numbers or budget.

Six weeks ago Sara MacIntyre was moved from a communications director job in Clark's office into a strategic issues management position in the main communications shop in the Citizens' Services ministry.

MacIntyre had joined Clark's office earlier this year, a high profile recruit from Prime Minister Stephen Harper's staff.

Also vacant were the issues management and communications co-ordinator positions previously held by Spencer Sproule and Trevor Halford.

In June Clark's office hired Mike Morton as press secretary, a position he had formerly held when Gordon Campbell was premier.

Another federal Conservative who served a short time in Clark's office, Ken Boessenkool, left as chief of staff in September following an 'incident of concern' involving a female government staff person at a downtown Victoria bar.

Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Find him on Twitter or reach him here.